Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1887-02-28
Execution of Mrs. Druse.

dERkiMER, ". L =, reU. Zo.-AlleE tut
services last evening Mrs. Druse remained
up until about 1870 p. m. Deputy sheriff
BARLEY Manion, with Mr.. and Mrs
Waterman, the death watch, induced her tc
lie down and she had about an hour quiet
sleep. She awakened with start and upon
arising wrote two letters as calmly as she
had at any time daring her incarceration
Both were directed to the sheriff, one thank
ing him for kindness extended during her
imprisonment, and the other directing that
her body be turned over to her pastor, Rev.
Mr.. Powell, after death. After writing, Mrs.
Druse laid down again and fell into O doze.
She was attacked with hysteris in a violent
form and it required considerable effort on
the part of watchers to arouse aad calm her.
During the night she ate one Of the heart
lest meals that she had partaken since she
was prisoner. Rev. DIR. Powell visited
Mrs Druse about a. No., and did ell in his
power to calm her and prepare her for the
awful moment. She ate no breakfast but
partooE of stimulating medicine prepared
by the jail physicians The crowd in the
village increased on the arrival of every
train ard in spite of the extreme cold, men,
women and children stood about the streets
surrounding the jail satisfied to look at the
officials as they passed in and out of the
building. The execution, however, was wit
messed by.only % persons including the OF
fcials. Precisely at y o'clock the trap was
sprung.
The crime for which Mrs Druse suffered
the extreme penalty of the law was of re-.
Voting nature. She and her husband had
not lived together agreeNbly for some time.
| About eight o'clock, December 18th, 1884,
bitter cold morning, Mrs. Druse, who slept
| in the parlor of their house with Mary, her
! l9year old daughter, called to Frank Gates,
aged thirteen, her nephew, who slept up
stairs with Mr.. Druse and Gaorge, her ten
year-old son, 10 get up and start the fire.
Frank obeyed. Druse also arose and went
to the barn to do tho chores. at nine
o'clock Mrs. Druse and Mary began to pre-
pare the morning. meal. A dullaxs had been
used in chopping board which was used
Tor fuel. When Dfuse came in from the
barn he upbraided his wife for destroying
the board, and declared that he would
have change before night" Mrs. Druse
denied that she had ever touched the board.
Before sitting down to breakfast Mr.. Druse
brought the axe into the kitchen. When
the boys had finished TIER break fast, Mrs.
Druse brought from The paror seven bar
relied Twenty-Five alibre pear. handled re-.
volyer. The door leading 10 the parlor was
directly hack of Druse as he sat at the table.
He did not observe his wife's action. She
clu,ched the weapon in her right hand,
which wss held under her apron. In q
whisper she babe the boys 10 leave tho
house. Then Mary picked up rope which
had been placed under The small "box"
cook stove, and stood in readiness When
the boys were near the barn, about twenty
yards from the house, she deliberately shot
!. her husband in the neck This dazed him.
Mary. receiving the cue from ermurderous
and now excited mother, threw loop in
the rope over her fathers head and pinned
him TO his chair, while Mrs. Druse dis
charged two more shots into her husbands
body. Then, with the idea Of making him
I'D accomplice TO the atrocious deed, she
called Frank Gates into the kitchen and
compelled him to fire upon Druse with the
revolver. Then the inhuman wife and
mother sent another bullet into the bleed.
ing body of her husband. Blood gushed
from Druse's nostriIs and trickled from his
mouth az his ullet.perforated body rolled
from the chair to the floor. The daughters bound
the bleeding form to one of the supports of the
cock stove and Mrs Drnse wildly clutching the
axe which Druss himself had brought into the
room, dealt him blow On the head, after the
manner in which well-trained butcher would
fell an OK or hog. George Druse followed his
companion into the house and heard his father
whose CORY head and beard rocked in blood
pleading piteously for his life. 90 Roxie. don't!"
were his last words. The dull blade of the axe
was hurled with fndish forco upon the neck of
the PROSTATE man. The daughter kept the body
in & position that would best facilitate the bloody
butchery, while her mother, with demoniac eT-
pressions of disgust at the squirting blood OF her
husband, hewed the head from the trunk Mira.
Druse wrapped the head of her husband in piece
Of raDer and placed it in the parlor. Then, with
assistance, she dragged the headltss trunk into
the same apartment. One of the boys was sent
t. The brush LOT to procure the sharp axe the
other lad brought shingles, and built rousing |
FIRE in the COOK stove; Mary pinned newspapers
and sheets over the windows. All this was done |
under the mothers supervision. When the axe
was brought, she went alone into the parlor and |
chopped the body into small pieces and burned |
them in the stove. The charred remains and |
sshes together with the skull, were subsequently
placed in bag by Mrs Druse the boys and MARY |
and dumped in neghboring swamp. The muir
der leaked out aboutth middle of January, 1856 |
Frank Gates and George Druse 'Serc arrested and /
turned States evidence The murderess and Ma
~ were arrested and confined in separate cells at
the Herkimer county Jail. Mary endeayored by
a fabrication of lies to defend her mother. The |
fabrication of the daughter fell to pieces before
the searching inquiry of the peoples lawyers.